Introduction: Brucellosis is a zoonosis classified as one of the most important neglected zoonoses in the world, especially in low and middle-income countries with livestock farming represented. In recent years, an increased incidence of brucellosis has been reported in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in the Central Bosnia Canton (CBC) region. In the CBC region, the first case of the disease was registered at the end of 2002 in the municipality of Novi Travnik. In the period 2003-2012, 539 cases in humans and 7508 infected animals were registered. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding the risk of brucellosis in the population living in rural and suburban areas because human behavior plays a significant role in the spread of brucellosis. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study conducted in selected rural and suburban areas of the CBC in the period from October 2023 to January 2024. In this study, 117 respondents participated with 60 respondents (51.3%) from rural areas and 57 (48.7%) from suburban areas. Results: The respondents from rural areas showed better knowledge with an average score of 69.86 ± 11.99% than the respondents from suburban areas with an average score of 59.21 ± 11.86 (p < 0.0001). Looking at the average scores of the attitudes of the same regions, it can be seen that the respondents from the suburban region have a better attitude with 55.56 ± 23.64% (p < 0.0001) than the respondents from the rural region. In practice, the suburban region scored better with an average of 50.50 ± 18.65% than the rural region with 37.08 ± 15.02% (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The One Health approach, which involves collaboration between veterinary and public health professionals, is the key to successful brucellosis control.

In the paper was investigated the variability of the morphological and anatomical traits of one-year-old seedlings of different species from the genus Quercus (Quercus robur L., Quercus petraea Matt. Liebl. and Quercus frainetto Ten.) cultivated in a plastic container Bosnaplast 18. The acorn was sown in November 2022, while the measurements of the studied elements were performed at the end of the growing season next year. In terms of morphological characteristics, the highest mean values of both researched parameters (root collar diameter and height) were recorded in Q. robur, followed by Q. frainetto, while the lowest mean values were found in Q. petraea. As for anatomical parameters, the following were analyzed: vessels width, the proportion of bark, pith and wood, as well as the participation of early- and latewood zones. Vessels width shows the least average values in Q. petraea, while no significant differences were recorded between Q. robur and Q. frainetto. The highest presence of wood, as well as the early zone within it, was found in Q. robur. The proportion of bark is a little bit higher in Q. frainetto compared to the other two species, while the pith proportion is significantly lower in Q. robur than in the other two species. Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that Q. robur seedlings show the best performance, before all from morphological point of view.

Cereals, primarily wheat and corn, make up a significant part of the diet in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cereal landraces are still an important part of the global agrobiodiversity in the country, although the maize and wheat landraces, were reduced from the sowing areas, in the second half of the 20th century, as in many other countries, because of the introduction of high-yielded cultivars into production. Considering the turbulent history, in addition to the industrialization that was carried out in the second part of the 20th century, as well as the migration of humans from the countryside to the cities, all together contributed to the loss of many local populations of local maize and wheat landraces. However, during and after the 2000s, several collection missions were carried out. Different activities started and the collected accessions were stored in gene banks. In the country, there is only one breeding institute today that deals with maize and wheat breeding and selection, which makes this country constantly dependent on imported seeds. Cereal genetic resources are bearers of good traits, such as resistance to stress conditions, but also as a material that carries some undesirable properties. These genetic resources should be seen also as a part of the common heritage and should be preserved and maintained for the use of current and future generations.

The aim of this article is to make a theoretical review of the requirement for the development of critical thinking as one of the most important skills today, known as the 4K skills of the 21st century. Critical thinking lies at the base of moral conduct and authentic intellectual growth, and as such is crucial to the prosperity of society as a whole. The complexity of critical thinking is reflected in the fact that it takes numerous cognitive processes to initiate it and the acquisition of a specific set of knowledge, skills and values that should conduct it. Critical thinking is a generative competence whose actuality transcends space and time, and due to the ubiquity of situations in which there is a need for it, it should not be neglected within the framework of school learning and teaching outcomes. The methodology for creating the expected learning outcomes in the curriculum approach is usually guided by Bloom’s taxonomy, but the hierarchy of this taxonomy is not compatible with the hierarchy of critical thinking skills, which is why, when defining the expected learning outcomes, it would be more adequate to use the table of critical thinking competencies proposed by Iva Buchberger. Finding the best available ways of practicing critical thinking skills in class is the duty of modern pedagogy, so that the school fulfills its obligation to form the personality of students who are capable of competent decision-making and action.

This research analyzes the media discourse on racism in football in Germany. The main goal of this paper is to find linguistic patterns that should reflect the way in which racist behavior is related to the immigrant background of certain football players. For this purpose, several media texts were selected that describe cases in which some German football players were exposed to racism, such as Jérôme Boateng, Mesut Özil and Gerald Asamoah. These three show different contexts that encouraged racist behavior towards them, but all three cases could be summed up by Mesut Özil’s sentence: “German when we win, immigrant when we lose”. The methodology applied in this work is based on the linguistic analysis of the discourse. This approach has especially developed among German linguists who believe that discourse analysis should be conducted exclusively on the basis of the language itself and linguistic patterns, and that conclusions are drawn only on the basis of what is linguistically realized.

The main goal of this paper is to show and analyze the differences in the parameters of the situational efficiency of home and guest matches of the Premier League of BiH clubs in the 2023/24 season. The paper is based on research into current trends of the analysis of situational efficiency parameters in football. The purpose of the paper is to bring the trends closer to all those who love football and statistics. It is to be believed that the paper will contribute to football theory and practice and that it will have its benefits. The paper used statistical indicators collected by notational analysis of 12 clubs in the 2023/24 season, as well as data from the COMET system and the "SofaScore" application. The analysis will contain certain variables with which the parameters of the situational efficiency of the clubs will be compared. These are: ball possession, total shots, shots on goal, shots off goal, corners, goalkeeper saves, yellow cards, red cards, number of spectators (home matches), number of substitutions, number of goals scored per match as a whole set of performance indicators for players and teams. The percentage of ball possession success ranged from 53.45% in home matches to 46.56% in away matches, the number of shots on goal averaged 4.75% in home matches and 3.41% in guest matches. Total shots on goal were 11.71% in home games and 8.45% in away games. The number of corners on average was 5.42% for the home team, while guest teams took 3.79% of corners per game. Goalkeepers had 2.32% of saves in home games, and 3.06% of saves in guest games. Regarding the variable yellow cards, on average teams received 2.07% of cards as home players, and 2.42% of yellow cards in guest games. Also, the variable red cards and the average of red cards is higher in guest games where teams received an average of 0.11%, and as home players 0.07%. Coaches made an average of 4.48% of substitutions per game as home players, and 4.44% of substitutions in guest games out of a possible 5%. The most important variable for which football is played is the number of goals scored, where teams as hosts scored 1.7% of goals per game and 1.1% of goals in guest games. A total of 33 matches were analyzed for each team. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in favor of home matches were determined for the parameters ball possession, total shots, number of shots on goal, number of shots off goal, corners and number of goals scored in the match. Teams in guest matches had statistically significantly higher (p<0.05) values in the variables goalkeeper defense and number of yellow cards. Knowledge of the analysis of situational efficiency parameters will enable football coaches to design football tactics more precisely.

Dapsone is a sulfone used in treating inflammatory skin conditions. Despite its widespread dermatological use, the pharmacological actions of dapsone remain poorly understood. Here, we examined how different aspects of neutrophil functions are affected by dapsone. Peripheral blood neutrophils from healthy donors were stimulated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (fMLP), or calcium ionophore (CaI) or primed with cytokines prior to stimulation, in the presence of different concentrations of dapsone (from 10 to 50 µg/mL), followed by analyses of their survival, phenotype, and functional properties. We found that dapsone at the concentration of 50 μg/mL induced a significant neutrophil apoptotic rate during 6 h and 18 h, while other concentrations were well tolerated compared to control non-treated cells. However, dapsone significantly decreased the induced oxidative burst of neutrophils at all non-cytotoxic concentrations. Additionally, dapsone showed a dose-dependent suppression of NETosis in activated neutrophils. The production of IL-8 by dapsone-treated neutrophils was decreased under both stimulated (fMLP) and primed (TNF-α/fMLP) conditions. Moreover, dapsone inhibited the expression of CD11b/CD18, CD66, and CD89 and reversed or significantly mitigated the downregulation of CD16, CD32, CD181, CD88, and CD62L on neutrophils after priming and fMLP stimulation. In conclusion, our results indicate the complexity of dapsone actions on neutrophil functions, extending previous knowledge on the suppression of oxidative burst and IL-8 production upon neutrophils’ activation. Suppressed NETosis and modulation of marker expression associated with different neutrophil functions under inflammatory conditions are new findings, not recognized previously.

For efficient production planning, it is necessary to know the power consumption of a particular woodworking operation in advance. In the past, many power measurement tests have been carried out based on a large number of different combinations of technological parameters. However, in this paper, the effects of technological parameters and wood properties on the power magnitude of peripheral milling are analysed using experimental design methods, where the effects of the different factors can be tested with a much smaller number of combinations. Therefore, a central composite experimental design was used to plan the experiments. Three different tree species with different densities were milled with three different numbers of cutting knives and three depths of cut at constant feeding speed and rotational velocity. For each milling combination, the power was measured continuously and then the average power was calculated. Based on the measurements, a suitable model was determined that allowed the magnitude of the cutting power to be determined for each combination of technological parameters and wood species tested. The model proved to be suitable, as the deviations between the measured and modelled power values are minimal.

<p>Zeolite 13X is one of the best adsorbents among zeolites and one of the most commercially available zeolites.&nbsp; This paper investigates the influence of several process parameters on the properties of 13X zeolite, including crystallization temperature, crystallization duration and Si/Al molar ratio in the starting reaction mixture. The quality of the obtained powders was examined in detail through a series of analytical and instrumental methods, presented in the paper. Water and CO₂ adsorption capacities were determined as key quality parameters of 13X zeolite, and additional characterization was performed by determining material granulometry, specific surface area (BET analysis), crystallinity (X-ray diffraction method) as well and SEM analysis. The obtained results indicate a clear dependence between the examined process parameters of the system and the characteristics of the synthesized materials, thus enabling the selection of optimal conditions for the synthesis of 13X zeolite.</p>

Abstract Multiple studies have shown the importance of adequate nutrition for animals and humans and its effect on overall health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different nutritional regimes on the intestinal health of rats by evaluating different morphological and morphometric characteristics of small intestines, with the emphasis on the villus height:crypt depth ratio (V:C). For the experimental study, 24 clinically healthy adult Wistar rats were used. The rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: the control group (group A) was fed with conventional food, the second group (group B) with bakery products, and the third group (group C) with meat products. Samples of the duodenum and jejunum were collected for detailed morphological and morphometric analysis. A significant increase in the duodenal villi height was reported in group B (661.59 µm) and C (602.83 µm) compared to the control group (475.34 µm). The crypt depth values in the jejunum were significantly higher in group B (191.41µm) and C (246.23 µm) compared with the control (145.14 µm). The jejunal V:C ratio was significantly lower in groups B and C. The study showed significant morphological changes in the intestinal parameters in rats fed predominantly with meat and bakery products. These findings could be applicable in both veterinary and human medicine, underlining the significance of consumed food on gut health.

In this paper, we analyze examples of research institutes that stand out in scientific excellence and social impact. We define key practices for evaluating research results, economic conditions, and the selection of specific research topics. Special focus is placed on small countries and the field of artificial intelligence. The aim is to identify components that enable institutes to achieve a high level of innovation, self-sustainability, and social benefits.

One of the complex decision-making problems, which requires consideration of several criteria, is the choice of a smartphone. This paper presents an approach that combines user review analysis with machine learning and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods to identify and evaluate alternatives. Based on the processed reviews, the Random Forest algorithm was used to identify the criteria that most influence the selection of smartphones. The weights of the criteria were determined using the Defining Interrelationships Between Ranked criteria II (DIBR II) method, improved by the application of triangular fuzzy numbers for better processing of the subjective and imprecise nature of the data. For the final selection of the optimal alternative, the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method was applied in a fuzzy environment, which enables the combination of additive and multiplicative approaches in ranking. The methodological justification of the proposed approach was confirmed by a sensitivity analysis, through 15 scenarios of changes in the weight coefficients of the criteria, which showed that small oscillations in the weights do not significantly affect the final ranking, especially not in the first two positions. The validation was additionally supported by a comparative analysis with four other decision-making methods in a fuzzy environment, which confirmed the stability and consistency of the results. The proposed approach provides an empirically grounded and methodologically robust framework for solving decision-making problems under conditions of multi-criteria evaluation and uncertainty, and can be applied to a wide range of similar problems in different fields.

In recent decades, China has significantly increased its global economic presence, emerging as one of the leading powers in the international system, in alignment with its strategic plan through 2049. This presence includes a keen interest in Southeast Europe, with Serbia identified as a key strategic partner. China's approach to Serbia intersects with Russia's longstanding presence rooted in the historical and cultural ties with Serbia. This paper examines the strategic interests and goals of China and Russia in Serbia, exploring their respective methods and tools. It also delves into Serbia's foreign policy aspirations for sustainable security trying to balance the presence of superpowers within, and around its territory. The paper evaluates Serbia's try of strategic navigation of its geostrategic position between East and West, questioning if Serbia is actually naive or aware of its circumstances. The study elucidates on how China and Russia's strategic maneuvers in the region, often subconsciously, shape Serbia and its neighboring countries. Within this intricate landscape, the concept of “Strategic symmetry” emerges as a crucial element, highlighting the delicate balance of influence that both powers exert in Serbia while it strives to maintain its entry into the European Union.

Cryptocurrencies are new financial instruments that pose opportunities and challenges for modern finance. This paper synthesizes previous research using a literature review method and various academic databases. The results show that cryptocurrencies offer lower transaction costs, greater privacy, diversification benefits, and alternative financing solutions for institutional investors and individuals. However, they also face challenges such as regulatory uncertainty, criminal activity, environmental costs, prohibitions and restrictions on use, security and privacy concerns, and high volatility. The paper provides useful information for the academic and professional public who want to understand these new financial instruments. The research question is, “What are the opportunities and challenges of cryptocurrencies in modern finance?”